The complaint, filed in California Superior Court, alleges that a 13-year-old student experienced a mental health crisis after months of interacting with Google’s AI Mode.
It is likely the first lawsuit challenging Google’s integration of AI into apps used on school Chromebooks without adequately warning parents about potential risks, according to a New York Times report. In response, Google said it is reviewing the lawsuit’s claims. Google is facing a lawsuit over AI on school-issued Chromebooks. The company also noted that it had worked extensively with health experts on features to help young people find emergency resources.
Emma did not initially seek out Google’s AI, according to the complaint. Her parents learned of the crisis in mid-March after a monitoring service flagged writing in Google Docs and alerted her school, according to the report. The complaint identifies the student as Emma, a seventh grader in Charlotte, North Carolina. It alleges that she began interacting with AI Mode, a conversational feature within Google Search, while using her school-issued laptop. Instead, her web searches led her to AI Mode, where she eventually exchanged thousands of messages, including late at night. They took her for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, and she now attends weekly therapy.